


mono no aware (物の哀れ)

by youremynumberone



Category: EXO (Band)
Genre: Drinking & Talking, Kyungsoo’s Birthday Week 2021, M/M, Movie: Lost in Translation (2003), Strangers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-01
Updated: 2021-02-01
Packaged: 2021-03-11 22:55:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,000
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29125323
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/youremynumberone/pseuds/youremynumberone
Summary: Kyungsoo is an  actor flown to Tokyo to shoot for a commercial, Baekhyun is alone on a trip he had booked for two.
Relationships: Byun Baekhyun/Do Kyungsoo | D.O
Comments: 14
Kudos: 49
Collections: Challenge #13 — Like a Movie





	mono no aware (物の哀れ)

**Author's Note:**

> [Listen](https://open.spotify.com/track/1jQUjKDjWsVPIYyLANEThG?si=_zE8tWGVRyyLKzLmXDxtOw)

“Suntory time!”

Everybody holds their breath, someone hits the slate, and-- “That’s a wrap!” The lights shut down one by one. 

*

Dim lights. High ceilings. A stunning view of Tokyo. Tasteful piano work. Kyungsoo takes a seat in the bar, empty so far save for one man at the far end. 

The guy behind the bar takes his order and within a few minutes, he finally has in his hands real whiskey (and not lukewarm iced tea). Kyungsoo takes a sip and lets a satisfying string of gentle flames line his throat. 

“You’ve been here drinking every night, pal. I should suggest you take a little breather. What about some soda water instead?” 

Kyungsoo turns to look and a man, no, a boy, for he seems more boyish than manly and like he hasn’t grown into his body yet, sits slumped four stools down. He is nursing an empty glass and is obviously trying to order more, which the bartender apparently isn’t allowing. 

He catches Kyungsoo’s eyes and sees his gaze follow the glass in his hand. His mouth turns up at its edges. 

Kyungsoo lifts the glass, as if to say, _This?_

When the bartender has turned away, the boy rises in his seat to move closer to Kyungsoo. 

“Can I have that?”

“No.”

“Why not? You’re not drinking it.”

And something in the taunt in his voice makes Kyungsoo heat up a little that he downs the whole thing in one go. Suntory's Hibiki 17. Feels it hit him, smoothly and all at once. 

The boy scoffs and then pouts. 

“I just want one more.”

Kyungsoo signals at the bartender and orders two. If he meant to protest, he keeps it to himself and just eyes them warily, before grabbing two glasses.

“Woah? What are you, a celebrity?”

*

It goes like that again the next night. The bartender is different, and oblivious to Baekhyun’s nasty drinking habit, allows them to drink to their heart’s content. They talk, but mostly, they drink in companionable silence.

The third night, Baekhyun doesn’t see Kyungsoo at the bar and instead finds him at the swimming pool. 

“You ditched me,” he says loudly, straining to be heard amid the loud lapping of the water as Kyungsoo swims from one end to the other. 

When he surfaces at the far end of the pool, he says, “Aren’t you tired of the alcohol yet?”

“Something else you have in mind then, old man?” Baekhyun asks, walking closer to where Kyungsoo is, a wet and bobbing thing. 

“I’m not old, you’re just young.”

“Wanna come into my room? I bought a whole bottle, in case Junmyeon-- that’s the bartender downstairs, bans me again. We can watch old horror movies... Or just. I don’t know. Please keep me company.”

*

“This is a big room for just one person,” Kyungsoo says, sitting on the king sized bed. 

“It isn’t.”

“What? It’s super huge. Bigger than mine.”

“Dumbass. I mean it isn’t for one person,” Baekhyun says, sounding even younger, smaller than he usually does.

They only finish one movie before Baekhyun starts to doze off and Kyungsoo, made pliant by the gin, and the sake that Baekhyun insisted they also try, lies down under the covers as well. 

If he lets Baekhyun snuggle with him closer, then nobody needs to know. Kyungsoo sleeps the soundest he’s had that night since getting to Tokyo.

*

During his last night, Kyungsoo is roped in with a handful of strangers into this karaoke room with its spinning lights and wildly patterned wallpapered walls. Baekhyun is singing in front, passionately belting an old ballad. He sounds like a wounded dog, not like a thing to be pitied or avoided, but like a soft animal, hungry and earnest and about to devour the song to its rind. It's beautiful.

When he finishes, he sits beside Kyungsoo, drapes half his body into his lap and sounding absolutely winded says, “Did you like my singing?”

He nods and lets Baekhyun press more into the side of his body, his arm around his waist and Kyungsoo melts into the distinct sensation of being held.

“I can’t hear you.”

“I said yes!” Kyungsoo says loudly, his mouth grazing the shell of Baekhyun’s ear.

They both still at the sudden proximity. 

“Let’s go outside.”

The two escape the deafening roar of the room and sit on the plastic chairs in the hallway. The silence here is jarring and it takes a moment before Kyungsoo finds his voice.

“I said, I really like your voice,” he says again. And he knows he only means earlier, he means the way Baekhyun sang, but it comes out softer, more weighted here where it’s quiet and they are alone.

Baekhyun leans his head into Kyungsoo’s shoulder. 

“That’s also what he said.”

Something clears in the back of Kyungsoo’s mind, and it unexpectedly leaves a pang in his throat to hear it like this.

“Then that means it’s true.”

“He also said he loves me, but he took it back.”

The walls behind them tremble from the joyous singing inside. 

“That’s okay,” Kyungsoo says. “I’m sure when he said it then, he really, really meant it.”

“Does it still mean anything then? After?”

The hurt is now unmistakable in the break in Baekhyun’s voice. And here, Kyungsoo knows he has to tread lightly. Goes for honest, instead of a false promise.

“Well, what I know is... I will still like your voice in the morning. And the day after. And even when I won’t hear it anymore.”

It’s then that Baekhyun looks up, faces Kyungsoo and eyes rimmed red, he smiles a heartbreaking little smile, like he’s suddenly made aware this is all transient, but also like this moment then is important and he wants to make it last, render it crystalline.

*

Later at dawn, when they part amid the throngs of people rushing elsewhere, Baekhyun leans in and whispers something to Kyungsoo. 

And if Kyungsoo says it back, nobody else needs to know.

**Author's Note:**

> We might meet again, someday between dreams at dawn.  
> — Shuntarō Tanikawa
> 
> Mono no aware (物の哀れ) literally "the pathos of things", or "a sensitivity to ephemera", refers to an awareness of impermanence (無常, mujō), or transience of things, and both a transient gentle sadness (or wistfulness) at their passing as well as a longer, deeper gentle sadness about this state being the reality of life. 


End file.
